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By Roger Koppl
Part 3: Should Experts Have Power? In my last two EconLog essays (here and here), I examined some of the causes of expert failure seemingly at work in the present crisis. I pointed out that we don't know how to strike a balance among the different expert silos such as medicine and economics. And I pointed out that in many areas of expertise, state-supported professional associations enforce uniformity of opinion so that we don’t get the sort of flexible thinking...
In the wake of the (COVID-19) pandemic news outlets and politicians alike are discouraging everyone from price-gouging and hoarding. The question is why? We are told that to raise the prices during a crisis such as a natural disaster or a pandemic is cruel and...
Thanks, blink. That's the thing. We have to unwind it, but we don't yet know how. Think of the good done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Those are the crash test guys. The insurance companies had an interest in safe cars that was not fully shared by the car makers. So they formed IIHS, which helped give us safer cars. The healthcare market is so badly trussed up with various government controls and restrictions that nothing similar has been able to emerge there. If we are smart about liberalizing healthcare markets, we can enable that sort of thing in healthcare too. But we don't know how to do it. It's a good problem for people to think about.
Roger Koppl , April 3, 8:26 am.